What You Need To Know About Windows 7 Service Pack 1?

Now, after a long period of waiting (not really actually as I don’t see a real urge for it), Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is released to the public today. Before you actually get it installed on your computer, here are a few things that you may need to know.

What are the prerequisites?

1. A clean installation of Windows 7 RTM editions. That means that if you previously have the service pack 1 beta installed you will have to uninstall it first. 2. The Servicing Stack Update (SSU) needs to be installed. This update is required to successfully install or uninstall the service pack. This update is included in the standalone update package which you can download directly from Microsoft. However, if you are going to install service pack 1 through Windows update, it’s offered as a separate package.

Any new features included in Service Pack 1?

The answer is No. This particular service pack is just an accumulated security patches and nonsecurity fixes that have already been issued via Windows update. It does have a few notable changes but nothing sounds critical or meaningful to a regular user. You can definitely treat it as a bigger critical windows update.

Where do I get it?

The easiest and recommended way is to go through the Windows Update. See our previous post here for the details. Unless this process failed, you don’t necessary need to go and download the standalone package which is 537M big for 32-bit and 903MB for 64-bit.

Can I uninstall service pack 1 after it’s installed?

Even though I don’t see a reason why you need to uninstall the answer is yes. You can definitely uninstall it after it’s been installed on your computer. To do so, you can either

Uninstall Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB 976932) through Programs and Features, and View Installed updates.

Final words

Even though there are no major features introduced in this Service Pack, it’s still considered as a must-have update you should install on your computer. However, I would also recommend that it might be better you just wait for a month or two until all the dust is settled before installing it, especially if you have some old program you rely on. There may be some incompatibility issues there.